A reading guide to comics and books

Tag: comic books (Page 1 of 5)

There is a new Netflix series about The Punisher. It’s a good time to talk about the comic books and where to start reading them.

Who is The Punisher?

Created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru, The Punisher made his first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #129. His real name is Frank Castle and he is an extremely violent vigilante who’s not afraid to kill, kidnap, and torture.

For Castle, everything began after his family was killed by the mob. This US Marine Special Forces veteran went on a vengeful quest and never stopped.

Sometimes, comic books can be educational, that’s the case here, so enjoy and learn!

What are the Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales?

Written by Nathan Hale, the series Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales is about a spy named Nathan Hale who, with the help of some comic book magic, lived through the most important event in American History.

Everything began when Hale is about to be hung. His last words were ‘I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.’ That’s why a gigantic magical ‘Big Huge Book of American History’ appears and swallows Hale. The spy gained knowledge of what is to come for the United States of America. After that, The Provost and the Hangman are intrigued and asked Hale to tell them a story from the history book. Each book in the series covers a specific time, person, and/or event.

In the beginning of this blog, I was motivated by doing long and comprehensive reading guide, especially for comics. It’s time to get back at it with a big chunk of Spider-Man recent history.

Spider-Man by Dan Slott, The Longest run

Dan Slott took over in 2010. Before that, he was one of the multiple writers who tried to put Peter Parker back on his feet following the disastrous One More Day storyline.

Dan Slott knows Spider-Man’s history and how to use it. He used it to redefine old enemies, to develop new ones and to take the story where it never went before. This is a comprehensive reading order, following mostly TPB editions, not issues on issues.

It’s the end of the Secret Empire event, it’s time to get to the reading guide :

What is Secret Empire?

Big Marvel crossover published between April and September 2017, Secret Empire is one of thoses Universe Redefining massive event.

Of course, the most important thing here is that Captain America is a f***ing Hydra Agent! That was unexpected, to say the least, but we knew it before the event took place. So, we are not as surprised as his friends when he made his move and took control of America. Now, the ones who escaped the first assault must organize the resistance movement and fight the occupation. It’s long and transformative, as you may have guessed.

It seems that the news MCU movie, Thor: Ragnarok will integrate some bits and pieces from the World War Hulk storyline. It’s a good time to revisit it.

What is World War Hulk?

Written by Greg Pak with John Romita, Jr. as penciller, World War Hulk is a comic book crossover storyline published by Marvel Comics in 2007.

The story began with another story called Planet Hulk that started when a Gamma bomb causes the Hulk to lose control and attack Las Vegas. After that, the Illuminati decide the Hulk is too dangerous to remain on Earth and they trick him into leaving the planet. Everything didn’t go as planned. Hulk’s shuttle crashed on the planet Sakaar where he was taken into slavery and forced to fight gladiator battles for the planet’s emperor.

Now, he’s coming back on Earth and he wants vengeance. The World War Hulk begins.

I wrote some time ago a reading guide for the Clone Conspiracy. Since then, I wanted to do the same for another one of the big Spider-man event by Dan Slott, The Spider-verse. So, here we go…

What is the Spider-Verse event?

In almost all the universe, there’s a Spider-Man. In a 2014 Marvel Event named Spider-verse, all the Spider-Men were attacked by Morlun and his family, the Inheritors.

Written by Dan Slott, the storyline really began a few years ago during J. Michael Straczynski’s Coming Home story. Now, the Inheritors started to kill all of the spider-men in order to feed on their force. Some spiders started to jump from one universe to the other, saving the one they can in order to built an army. Soon, our own Peter Parker and the other spider-heroes from universe 616 joined the fight to stop the Inheritors once and for all.

Barry Allen is so fast, he will be on the small and the big screen at the same time this year. He also is in the pages of his own comics. If you want to read some of his adventures on paper, here is a little guide to help start.

Who is Barry Allen?

Barry Allen is the most famous Flash, thanks to his various incarnations on the screen, but he is not the first one. He is actually a reinvention of the character that had appeared in 1940s comic books.

Created by writer Robert Kanigher and penciler Carmine Infantino, Barry first appeared in Showcase #4 (October 1956). Everything begins one evening at the Central City Police Lab where Barry is alone and working late. A lightning bolt shatters a case full of chemicals and spills all over Barry. Our police scientist survives this accident, but discovers his whole being and molecular structure has been accelerated. He is now able run at super-speed, vibrates through walls and more (like time travel).

Along with Barry introduction, a whole new Rogues Gallery was created with The Mirror Master, Mr. Element, The Top, Captain Cold, Hat Wave, Captain Boomerang, The Trickster, the Pied Piper, Super Gorilla Grodd, and Professor Zoom – The Reverse Fash.

For a long time, I’ve heard of Love & Rockets. I recently decided to start reading the series, but didn’t know where to start. So, I did some research and here it is. I’ll probably update this guide during my readings, but it could take some time, so don’t be afraid to add more in the comments. Thanks.

What’s Love and Rockets?

Love and Rockets is a long running comic series written by Gilbert and Jamie Hernandez. It’s kind of an anthology, each brother working independently from the other, so there are two stories and more.

On Jaime side, it’s been one long story named Locas for the last decades. It’s about a group of punk rockers and their transition into adult life. On Gilbert side, there are more ongoing stories and some short stories too. The bigger one is Palomar & Luba, the inhabitants of Palomar, about a poor central American town and the inhabitants as they go on to live in America. And then, there are even more.

There are a lot of new adaptations of comics coming our way in the months to come. One of them is Marvel’s The Runaways. If you don’t know them yet, here is your guide to change that. But first…

Who are the Runaways ?

The Runaways are a group of six teenagers who discover that their parents are part of an evil crime organization known as “The Pride”. Not cool right? The teens stole weapons and resources from their parents and go on the run. Soon, they learn they themselves inherited their parents’ powers.

At first, I thought that Gwenpool was Lady Deadpool, but she is not. When I read about her story, I wanted to discover her books immediately, but where to start? Good question, here is the answer! But first…

Who is Gwenpool?

At one point, Marvel had fun with Gwen Stacy on the covers of a certain number of issues, delivering fun reimaginations of the famous Spider-Man character (because Spider-Gwen looks so cool). One of them was on the cover of Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars #2 in June 2015. At that time, Gwenpool was not in any story, but she was already a popular character.

Like Deadpool, Gwenpool is a fourth wall-breaking character. Gwen Poole is a character from ‘the real world’ and knows that she is in a Marvel comic book. She got her own costume and started to use here knowledge to fight crime, believing that her actions are pretty much without any consequences. Of course, she had no training and mostly improvise.

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